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Charlie Owen’s music and spoken word show, "Searching Fron Charlie Owen, has become one of the must see events on the Australian touring calendar.
The gigs retracing his storied career have attracted full houses and warm reviews up and down the Australian East Coast.
The latest New South Wales run - with a bunch of "new" old material - lands at The Brass Monkey in Cronulla on Saturday, March 7 and 185 Bar in Marrickville on Sunday, March 8.
Cronulla tickets are here and Marrickville here.
Cronulla supports are Looch Lewis and Mark Horne. Looch Lewis backs up for Marrickville but Paul Berwick (ex-Happy Hate Me Nots) in solo mode is the main support, launching a new CD.
From his work with Tex, Don and Charlie, Beasts of Bourbon, the New Christs and Divynils to collaborations with Louis Tillett, Paul Kelly, Tex Perkins, and the Working Class Ringos, Charlie has consistently pushed the boundaries of his craft whilst captivating audiences with his ferocious and at times tender performances.
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They were everywhere in the febrile underground rock and roll scene of the 1990s and the revived Hellacopters continue to make a mark with another new album.
“Overdriver” has landed less than three years after the ‘Copters’ European chart-storming comeback record, “Eyes Of Oblivion”, which entered the Swedish charts at number-one and at number-six in Germany.
It is their ninth full-length and the first fully produced by band leader Nicke Andersson.
Today marks the release of “Cream Of The Crap! Collected Non-Album Works Volume 3”, the latest rarities collection by the high energy rockers. It includes 24 tracks originally released between 1998 and 2005, most of them only found on vinyl and out-of-print CDs.
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Frank Schwichtenberg Creative Commons work
Dictators and Manowar co-founder Ross “The Boss” Freidman has been diagnosed with the debilitating condition, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), aka Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Ross revealed the diagnosis in a statement on February 9 and after several months of weakness in his hands and legs ,which medical advice originally put down to a series of minor strokes.
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TV Smith. Artist supplied photo.
TV Smith, founding member, singer and songwriter for punk torchbearers The Adverts, is heading to Australia for dates with his band, TV Smith’s Adverts, over and after the Easter break in April.
The Adverts, of course, formed in the UK in late 1976 and were one of the leading bands in the first wave of British punk rock. The Adverts performed regularly at the newly-opened Roxy Club in London in 1977, and gained cult success with the Stiff Records single "One Chord Wonders."
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Photo credit: Lyres Facebook page
Boston music legend Jeff “Mono Mann” Connolly (DMZ, Lyres) is struggling with medical debt amid treatment for cancer. A GoFundMe is active and Conolly recently updated fans on his progress.
“My monthly prescribed chemotherapy and pre-surgery medixations were 'affordable' last month at $245.99 – yesterday…my Insurance-'covered' prescriptions jumped In price by 20 percent,” wrote Conolly, now living in Lynn, Massachusetts.
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After insane Australian tours in 2023 and early 2025, Tokyo's Guitar Wolf returns to Australia in March along with a new album, “MOREJET!”
Starting in erstern Australia, the run takes in the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, Sydney and Wollongong, and Bendigo, Castlemaine, Melbourne, and Balnarring. Supports include Alien Nosejob, Split System and Itchy & the Nits with more to be announced,
“MORE JET!” is Guitar Wolf's first new album in seven years and will be released locally on Sorcerer Records . It's preceded by the first single "9pm Pornomag Planet", which is available now from the band's Bandcamp page.
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It’s called Surreal Science and is described “an off-the-rails salvage job, fashioned into a beautiful cinematic work of abstract sound and vision”. It features members and music of The Scientists and Kim Salmon and The Surrealists with three drummers, three guitarists, two bass players and two vocalists, drawing on a repertoire of 160 songs.
Kim Salmon is leading the ensemble and it tours Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in April, featuring two-hour-long sets with an intermission.
Guitarist Tony Thewlis; bassists Boris Sujdovic and Stu Thomas; drummers Clare Moore, Greg Bainbridge and Phil Collings; along with production engineer Hepburn and vocalist/guitarist Kim Salmon.
They'll appear in tandem with a visual presentation of the passed, present and future of both of The Surrealists and The Scientists
As Kim himself says: “Not a tribute but a recognition of their part in this ever-evolving story”.
The Scientists belligerently eschewed standard melody for minimalism, brutality and abstraction but remained staunchly Rock and Roll.
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Japanese post-punk indie rockers DYGL (pronounced “Day-glo”), kick off their first Australian tour this week and their new album “Who's In The House?” is being locally released by Cheersquad Records & Tapes. It's on vinyl and in digital format and can be procured here.
Hailing from Tokyo, DYGL are one of Japan’s most internationally acclaimed indie rock bands. Formed in 2012, the four-piece has built a global following with their raw energy, heartfelt lyrics, and a sound that fuses indie rock and 2000s garage revival with a uniquely Japanese sensitivity.
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Now for some good news from former Died Pretty drummer Chris Welsh who is recovering at the Melbourne home of longtime friends Tony Robertson (Hitmen, The 31st) and and Tony’s wife Samantha after surgery to remove a cranial tumour.
“My headache is still pretty bad but gradually improving. The surgery took longer than originally expected. Five and a half hours instead of three,” Chris posted online yesterday.
“I got the results from the pathology biopsy yesterday. Fortunately the tumour was benign. Back for a couple of blood tests, CT scan and oncology appointment next week and back to the neurosurgeon in six weeks. Apart from that I just have to take it easy and rest up.”
Chris has been in a long fight against lung cancer that’s forced him to leave his family in Thailand. A GoFundMe has been raising money to support him since 2023 and you can help here:
